Ireland’s new abortion service is the envy of many healthcare systems
I am incredibly proud as a GP to be part of something so worthwhile and rewarding

Thu, Feb 21, 2019
Mark Murphy

I never thought I would be a provider of abortion services. It’s not that surprising really. Abortion was not mentioned once in the medical curriculum when I qualified 14 years ago. It was an unspoken phenomenon, a secret reality. Before I became a GP, I never had a real conversation about abortion. It’s astonishing to consider that fact now, knowing that 25 million unsafe abortions happen each year, mostly in developing countries. High-profile legal cases, such as the X Case, were not seen as healthcare issues by our profession.

The threat of criminalisation contributed to this silence– a chilling effect, with doctors worried if they provided information or if they acted outside of the constitutional restraints, imposed by the Eighth Amendment. Though there are notable exceptions, including the Irish Family Planning Association, it is a sad epitaph that it took so long for the medical profession to find its voice.

The first call to our practice on January 2, at 9.01am, was a hesitant voice requesting an appointment regarding a crisis pregnancy.

The health system had been on six months' notice that early medical termination of pregnancy was 'switching on' from January 1, particularly the 180 general practices where a GP and practice team had opted into the scheme.

The Irish College of General Practitioners' (ICGP) women's health programme had communicated intensely with GPs, devising under the most unsparing and critical gaze of the nation evidence-based guidelines, in keeping with new legislation and best practice.

YAOUNDE — A new study confirms rape has become a weapon of war in Cameroon's separatist conflict, and many victims are terminating pregnancies with crude, unsafe abortion techniques.

Sixteen-year-old Mercy Azefor says she was raped in Nkambe while hiding on her mother's farm after her parents were killed in April 2018. Nkambe is in the Northwest region, one of two areas where English-speaking separatist groups are fighting to break away from Cameroon and its French-speaking majority.

A “sparse” rural abortion service is forcing pregnant women to travel long distances for a termination, pro-choice groups claim. They also describe the mandatory three-day waiting period for an abortion as “a significant barrier” for rural pregnant women.

The 35 pro-choice groups have written to Health Minister Simon Harris to express their “fear and disappointment” that some women are still unable to access timely abortion care.

Anti-abortion activist launches new website following injunction
Campaigner’s previous site was alleged to be confusingly similar to HSE crisis pregnancy hub

Feb 19, 2019
Jack Horgan-Jones, Sarah Burns

An anti-abortion activist has insisted that a new website he has launched is not covered by a High Court injunction secured against him for a separate site which was alleged to be confusingly similar to the official HSE crisis pregnancy service offering.

The site, myabortionchoices.com, is similar in design and content to another site run by Eamonn Murphy, which was the subject of the injunction sought by the health service last week.

'Through Pregnancy and Abortion...I Obeyed Like a Robot': Abuse Survivor Tells of Predator Priest
Today aged 57, the academic is a leading member of a new international organisation, Ending Clerical Abuse (ECA), which is bringing together victims in Rome this week to pressure Pope Francis to take a tougher line on child abuse by clerics.

AFP - February 19, 2019

Paris: Denise Buchanan was 17 when she was raped by a seminarian who continued to abuse her when he became a priest in her native Jamaica. The Catholic Church, she says, has offered her nothing but their "prayers".

"I got pregnant and he arranged a clandestine abortion," Buchanan, still shaking and close to tears 40 years after the ordeal, told AFP.

(Two pro-choice letters at link)BBC’s Action Line adds abortion information, but it’s hard to find
Corporation’s view that procedure is ‘contentious’ is nothing new

Tue 19 Feb 2019

Sadly the BBC’s view that legal abortion is a “contentious” issue is nothing new (BBC under fire over failure to offer abortion information on Action Line, 15 February).

More than a year ago I was invited to take part in a World at One broadcast “to celebrate” 50 years of legal abortion in Britain. During telephone conversations about arrangements, I learned that an anti abortion MP (who recently, in the House of Commons, made the opposition speech during a 10-minute rule bill designed to update the outdated 1967 legislation) was also invited.

Kenya should focus on the well-being and safety of its women. Women’s sexual and reproductive rights need recognition and active reinforcement, and safe and legal abortion is a positive step in that direction.

Abortions are not permitted in Kenya unless, in the opinion of a trained health professional, there is a need for emergency treatment or the life or health of the mother is in danger.